A few years ago, GoDaddy reintroduced its automated domain appraisal tool. The free appraisal tool aims to give users an idea about what their domain name could be worth. The company shows the tool on various parts of its website. Here are three examples from my view, with the third being an optional column on the domain management page:

Domain Settings page:

Domain Auction page:

Domain Management page:

The appraisal tool may have a prominent place on other pages within the website that are viewed by other domain registrants. It may also be used in email marketing, but I am not aware of those efforts.

Last week, a relative emailed me asking if I could help her friend with something related to domain names. Requests like these run the gamut from acquiring a domain name to selling a domain name, and when they are made by relatives or close friends, I am generally happy to assist or at least point the person in the right direction.

The person who was looking for help this time was seeking advice about selling a domain name she has owned for about 10 years. In her email to me, she wrote, “The company that hosts it told me that it’s worth about $1200 since it’s a short .com.” Her domain name is a short 5 letter .com domain name, but from my perspective, it did not have much value that I could see. Not only was it the only extension registered for the SLD, but I did not see any prospective buyers for the domain name.

When it comes to situations like these, it is tough to tell someone their domain name probably isn’t worth much when their registrar or hosting company is saying otherwise. It is easy to explain that the appraisals are automated, but I think people have a tough time accepting that a domain name they have owned for a long time isn’t worth anything, particularly when another source says otherwise. On the other hand, just about any domain name may be worth something to someone, so there is also a danger in telling someone it is not worth anything. It’s a tough situation.

One thing I have done to help illustrate the fact that automated appraisals should not be taken as fact is to run an appraisal on an unregistered domain name. UnregisteredURLs.com is currently unregistered (not surprisingly), yet the GoDaddy appraisal tool says it is worth $636.

That brings me to the point of this article. When a customer believes their domain name has value, they are less likely to let it expire. In fact, they are more likely to try to sell their domain name to capitalize on its value. GoDaddy now makes it pretty simple for a registrant to list a domain name for sale across its network and implement a “for sale” landing page. I believe other registrars, like Epik, give customers the ability to list domain names for sale pretty easily.

People have different opinions on the validity of automated appraisal tools, but one thing is pretty clear to me – they are good tools for retention.

In the last week, I have learned about 3 seven figure domain name sales that closed this month. I know two of the three names, but I do not know the sale prices for any of these domain names. To my knowledge, none of these sales are going to be reported publicly. These sales will end up being more along the lines of hearsay, although I heard directly from principals on two of the three deals.

I had a fairly routine August in terms of domain name sales. I sold seven domain names with one Afternic sale from August 24th still pending payment. None of these sales were noteworthy from a value perspective. I spent quite a bit more on acquisitions in August than I made in sales, including the acquisition of MLR.com.

Each week, Arif Mirza organizes The Domain Social, a Zoom session for domain investors to chat about domain names and domain investing. A couple of weeks ago, Arif announced a special series of panels and discussions dubbed “Domainer Week.” This series started a few days ago, and it will continue for the next few days.

To see the schedule of upcoming panels, you can visit DomainerWeek.com. Since several of these panels were already held, you can click the embedded links to be taken to videos of the panels that already occurred. There are a couple that I am planning to watch when I have a moment.

My domain name portfolio has grown to around 1,400 domain names. This is approximately 3x the amount of domain names I owned a few years ago. To keep track of my domain names, I use a pretty simple tool – Microsoft Excel.

My Excel file to track inventory is super simple. On the top row, I have the following headers bolded: Domain Name, Purchase Price, and Year Acquired. In the first column on the left side, I have all of the domain names listed.

In a tweet this morning, NameBio reported that the valuable EEE.com domain name was sold via Flippa for $50k:

EEE․com was the top sale of the day going for $50k at Flippa. CruiseInsurance․com came in second closing at $17,099 at NameJet. MedBox․com rounded out third at $15,300 on GoDaddy. That and more in today's #DailyMarketReport at https://t.co/SzBHJx4l3y

— NameBio (@NameBio) August 23, 2021

Hilco Streambank posted a job opening on LinkedIn that might appeal to someone with domain industry experience and expertise. Hilco is looking to hire a Domain Business Leader. The person will help the company build a domain name brokerage business and will help manage the domain name assets of the company and its clients.

Hilco Streambank specializes in the sale of assets owned by companies going through bankruptcy proceedings. I wrote about one of the company’s domain name bankruptcy auctions earlier this year after winning AllOut.com. Hilco has sold many domain names in this manner, and the company also manages its own portfolio of domain names.

Here’s an excerpt from the LinkedIn job listing describing what the company does and what the company is seeking in a candidate for this position: